Sextant
Sextant
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- Description
- Karl Axel Eriksson, a native of Sweden who became a U.S. citizen around 1910, bought this sextant, secondhand, in England in 1918. He used it for the rest of his life, and believed that it helped him "advance as a sailor."
- The sextant has a brass frame. The inscription reads "Michael Rupp & Co. New York" and "English." The silvered scale is graduated every 15 minutes from -5° to +135° and read by vernier with tangent screw and swinging magnifier to 15 seconds of arc.
- Michael Rupp (1818-1899) was born in France, came to the U.S. in 1829, and settled in New York in 1844. By 1855 he was selling chronometers and other nautical instruments.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- sextant
- date made
- 1850-1900
- maker
- Rupp, Michael
- place made
- United States: New York, New York City
- Measurements
- radius: 7 1/2 in; 19.05 cm
- overall in box: 5 1/16 in x 11 in x 9 3/4 in; 12.85875 cm x 27.94 cm x 24.765 cm
- ID Number
- 1999.0156.01
- catalog number
- 1999.0156.01
- accession number
- 1999.0156
- Credit Line
- Chester Hansen
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- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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